Teaching Naked in the Classroom (from the Chronicle of Higher Ed)

I liked the article "When Computers Leave Classrooms, So Does Boredom"
http://chronicle.com/article/Teach-Naked-Effort-Strips/47398/

Don't worry. The "naked" here means without the security of PowerPoint to help you drone for an hour.

Here's a good quote that articulated what I've felt about college lectures and conference presentations recently:

"...the information delivery common in today's classroom lectures should be recorded and delivered to students as podcasts or online videos before class sessions. To make sure students tune in, he (Mr. Bowen, a lecturer of Jazz History) gives them short online multiple-choice tests.

So what's left to do during class once you've delivered your lecture? Introduce issues of debate within the discipline and get the students to weigh in based on the knowledge they have from those lecture podcasts, Mr. Bowen says.

'If you say to a student, We have this problem in Mayan archaeology: We don't know if the answer is A or B. We used to all think it was A, now we think it's B. If the lecture is 'Here's the answer, it's B,' that's not very interesting. But if the student believes they can contribute, they're a whole lot more motivated to enter the discourse, and to enter the discipline.'

In short, don't be boring."

ICU needs to move in this direction. My EFL reading and composition classes are already discussion-based to a certain extent, but I can do it more by moving explanations about essay writing techniques or reading techniques or projects to the web.

Presentations at conferences should be the same. Going to listen to somebody lecture live in a one-way style is often boring, completely unstimulating. If you have something valuable to say, you should write it online or record your lecture on video or online slides with voice over. Then, people who have listened to it should go to your interactive session for questions and discussion.